more or less the same
by mr-raindrops
Summary: Despite the differences, the basketball aspect of it all still manages to slip in. AoKuro.


**more or less the same**

* * *

He'd be ok with it if it was Satsuki - after all, he's already pretty used to her nagging; he'd be ok with it if it was Tetsu - hell, he _wishes_ it was Tetsu. Even Kise would be a more preferable neighbour. But no, it has to be Midorima - snobbish, probably-thinks-he-is-better-than-Aomine-in-every-way-possible Midorima Shintarou, who doesn't look any different from since they were in high school, and probably doesn't act any different, either. (It doesn't help that Aomine's mood is already sour from the chief yelling at him just fifteen minutes prior due to him forgetting a report for a minor car accident - it's not like someone's going to _die _just because he's a little late in writing it.)

"Out of all the people in the world."

Midorima makes a 'hmmph' of distaste as he pushes his glasses up further atop the bridge of his nose, hands tightening on the knob of his front door. Aomine notes how none of his fingers are taped. "My line exactly. Be glad that I'm not Akashi."

"I don't know who would be worse," Aomine mutters under his breath, knowing very well that Midorima can hear. The people living down the hallway can hear, too, probably; the echo in here is incredible.

"You're as always, I see. However, my day begins quite early, and my rotations are starting as well, so we likely won't see each other often." _For all the better_, Midorima seems to add silently with a flat look. Aomine's conscience, which sounds startlingly like Satsuki, tells him not to assume things, even if it is Midorima; he does sound a lot less obnoxious than from what Aomine remembers, however, so it lessens the urge to punch him in the ear.

"What, so you didn't go pro," Aomine sniffs, which is met by the raise of one of Midorima's eyebrows. "What are you, even?"

"I'm studying medicine at the University of Tokyo. And I don't know if anybody ever believed that I really would," Midorima says. "What about you, Aomine? I heard you went into law enforcement from Momoi. It's quite a surprise that you didn't just go join the NBA, really," and then he quickly tacks on, "the rest of us actually have something that we're good at other than basketball; you on the other hand, not so much."

Aomine shrugs the insult off, because Midorima did have a tendency to be offensive for the sake of being Midorima. Although there might be some truth in the matter. "Yeah, played in the bj-league for a while. Decided to take a break, thought I might get sick of it."

"You, sick of basketball." Midorima doesn't even try to conceal the incredulity in his tone. "Are you sure."

The comment strikes something at his core.

"Well..." he wonders whether Midorima would want to understand or know at all, even if he _is_ somewhat nicer of an asshole now. People do change. But then he's still Midorima, so maybe not that much. "No, not like basketball basketball. Just...the bj-league basketball. It feels like something's missing."

There's a short lull in the conversation, and silence hangs heavy in the air for those few fleeting seconds.

"That seems familiar, doesn't it," Midorima finally says, lifting off the hushed veil that muffles too many unsaid words and inserts his keys into the keyhole. He opens the door, steps in, gives Aomine a curt nod, and then with an obscure click Aomine is left standing alone in the corridor.

* * *

Satsuki schedules afternoon tea with him one Saturday at a "quaint" little half-bakery half-café place in her neighbourhood. She explains that it is a popular place, that the queues are usually pretty long on weekends, that its cakes are heavenly, and she wants to try them because her co-workers keep going on and on about how good they are.

It surprises them both when they walk in through one of its propped-open glass doors to see Murasakibara carefully sliding freshly prepared melon breads into the display counter in the bakery half of the store.

"Mukkun?" Satsuki squints, which is totally unnecessary, because Murasakibara still looks the same, tall and broad-shouldered, eyes droopy and hair still inconveniently long enough for him to tie back.

"Yeah, it's Murasakibara, now let's go before he decides that he actually wants to poison us." Aomine pivots back around to face the entrance, only Satsuki grabs his collar and drags him to the lineup.

"You can arrest him, fine him, or whatever if you get a stomach ache from this later. Dai-chan, grow up, we're going to say hi and we're going to _stay_," Satsuki tells him, with a voice that sounds like something between a mother reproaching her child and that evil science teacher who totally had it out for him back in Teikou, threatening him that he'd request the basketball club to remove him from all games unless he got better grades. Well, joke's on him because the team made extra sure that he ranked high enough on his exams to participate.

When they reach the front of the line, Murasakibara isn't back in the kitchen yet, and notices them almost immediately. He yawns as he studies them. "Mine-chin, Momo-chin, you guys don't look like you've changed much."

"Likewise," Aomine snorts back. Satsuki rolls her eyes and shakes her head in apology at the cashier, who just blinks. "Pastry chef now? I'm surprised you'd be ok with selling these. Thought you'd just eat them all or something."

"That's what you would do," Murasakibara drawls. "Or Kagami. I've gone to culinary school, they trained me to not eat what other people are gonna eat."

"Really? I've gone to police academy, they trained me to not eat doughnuts on my shifts-"

"It's nice to seen you, Mukkun. Can I please have two of the strawberry shortcakes and two of the peach mousse cakes?" Satsuki interjects, and shoots Aomine a caustic stare. Aomine flinches. It's the science teacher glare. "Sorry that we're holding up the line."

"You're the one who wanted to say hi." Aomine turns his attention to the array of sweets, heavily decorated with piled cream and fruit but it looks appetizing enough, even if it was made by Murasakibara. "Hey, you're pretty good at this. No wonder you got along pretty well with Kagami. Food is the only thing that connects you two."

"There's basketball," Satsuki offers, sliding bills over to the cashier.

Aomine doesn't know if Murasakibara is planning to respond, or if he just didn't hear, languidly arranging slices of their cake orders into a box, but then he says, "that too, I guess."

"You've..." Aomine watches him as he delicately - for Heaven's sake - places the last piece in. "...you're different."

"That happens."

Satsuki smiles a rueful smile, then thanks him when he hands over the box. "It really is nice seeing you again, Mukkun."

Murasakibara eyes them. "Take care, ok?"

"We'll be back before you know it," Satsuki promises. Murasakibara nods. "Right, Dai-chan?"

"What? No!" he protests as Satsuki drags him away to one of the tables near the front door. "Don't just make promises on my behalf!"

Satsuki plops him down in his seat, calls a waiter over and proceeds to order more cakes.

"Eat," she encourages, once their matcha and chocolate lava cakes are placed in front of them, looking at him over the rim of her cup of cappucino.

He doesn't want to admit it, but the cakes are _good_.

* * *

The next morning, Aomine hears someone's jingling keys as he locks his door. It ends up being Midorima.

"You look as tired as hell," Aomine says, startling the other, who almost drops his keys. Aomine thinks he finally understands Tetsu's satisfaction of scaring the lights out of people.

"That's probably because I am as tired as hell," Midorima tells him, monotone. He has bags under his eyes, but for some reason, he doesn't sound any crankier than usual.

Aomine takes one glance at his bare fingers, at how his entire person lacks strange accessories, the way Midorima used look in matches.

"Do you still follow your Ohohoho Ahaha thing?" Aomine asks, trying not to snicker because it sounds downright ridiculous when he says it, and a look of genuine confusion flits across Midorima's face before it recedes into a neutral expression. (Which, in Midorima's case, looks more like a frown than anything else.)

"It's _Oha Asa_, and no, I don't anymore. It doesn't really change anything." Aomine quirks a brow, and Midorima adds as an explanation: "sometimes, things...happen for a reason."

Aomine just stares, not even bothering to feign understanding, and he thinks that maybe it's because it's too early to be thinking in general.

Midorima slips his keys into his bag, then sighs resignedly. "Good morning to you too, Aomine."

It catches Aomine off-guard, and Midorima strolls past him to the elevator, but he manages to return the greeting before the elevator doors close completely.

* * *

Thursday after work, Aomine heads to the patisserie, café, bistro, bakery, whatever it is. The place is oddly empty, with only Murasakibara in sight.

"You never hated basketball."

Murasakibara isn't fazed by him or his sudden entrance or his sudden comment, simply continues to ice a sponge cake without even glancing at him. He responds, without missing a beat: "You never did, either."

He scoffs. "I know that. I never even said I hated it. It just got boring."

"Yeah," he says, bending down almost ninety degrees to ice rose petals. "It was the same for everyone. None of us could've really hated it, I don't think."

Murasakibara admitting it so straight-forwardly. How times have changed.

"Tetsu did," Aomine tells him, soft, with a sadness he hadn't felt in a long time in each rift of the syllables in Tetsu's name.

Murasakibara pauses, meets Aomine's eyes with his own hooded ones. He almost looks sympathetic, and it's a weird look on him. "I've always thought you were the one who knew him best, Mine-chin."

"Yeah? What's that supposed to mean?" he frowns, before a group of bubbly high school girls enters the cafe, forming a queue in front of the counter. He moves out of the way, but Murasakibara doesn't answer him, merely takes their orders and pretends as if Aomine isn't even there, earlier question fading in the warm evening breeze that drifts from the open door.

He grunts in annoyance, and starts for home. He's halfway out the door when Murasakibara's voice reaches him: "Mine-chin, I think you and Kuro-chin should talk more."

They did talk and still do, plenty of times - though it's mostly on the phone. "What's that supposed to mean?" Aomine repeats, but once again, he's blatantly ignored.

It's only when he inserts his key into the lock of his apartment that he starts from the sound of metal-against-metal and realizes that he forgot to buy the cake he went to the bakery for in the first place.

* * *

When Satsuki finds out while visiting Aomine that Midorima is living right next door, she has a fit and gives him a whole lecture, asking - half-yelling and half-whispering because the corridor is not the most suitable place to shout - "why didn't you tell me this earlier, Dai-chan?!" and whacking him on the back of the head. Midorima watches this all with a mask of solemnity, beneath which probably lies a mocking smirk, that somewhat-nicer-asshole.

They agree to meet up for lunch at Murasakibara's café during the next long weekend.

"He's a chef?" Midorima looks like he doesn't even want to believe it. Aomine empathizes. "Are you sure?"

"Pastry chef," Aomine tells him. "Or you know, what Kise calls it - pâtissier, or some shit. I think. Maybe he does other stuff too, but I've only ever seen him make desserts. He's got talent for that stuff."

Midorima doesn't comment any further. He's probably just glad that Satsuki didn't propose a homemade picnic, although she does manage to make it into some sort of reunion for Teikou's regulars, save for Akashi as he's studying in the States along with Kagami and Himuro.

Their lunch date falls on the same day that Kise flies back from Europe, and he joins up with them there, handing out souvenirs while Aomine munches on a savory waffle. Murasakibara takes a seat at their table beside Tetsu, who is to stay over with Aomine for the duration of the weekend, handing Tetsu a gourmet vanilla shake. Murasakibara sets the bowl of cake batter he was carrying aside on a nearby table.

"Shouldn't you be working?" Aomine asks, remembering to swallow first so that he doesn't spit chewed-up waffle bits at Tetsu, but somehow his mouth is still half full of food.

Murasakibara accepts a box of Swiss chocolate from Kise. "I can take breaks whenever I want. I own this place."

Glancing around, there are no other customers. Aomine shrugs.

"How are you faring, Kise?" Midorima stirs his latte, effectively destroying the latte art without so much as a glance. Aomine looks to Kise, who is looking as well and same as ever - bright eyes, glowing skin, healthy hair, dressed as if he's due for photo shoot in mere minutes.

"I'm good," he says, bubbly smile blooming on his face. "It gets boring sometimes, though, being a pilot. Part of life, I guess, but all in all, I'm happy with where I am. How about you, Midorimacchi? Kurokocchi told me that you and Aominecchi ended up living next to each other."

Kise is clearly trying to stifle any signs of amusement, though his shoulders are starting to shake. Aomine shoots Tetsu a betrayed look.

"I needed to move closer to the hospital, and I happened to pick that apartment building. I don't particularly mind it," Midorima replies. His response makes even Satsuki look a bit disorientated. He clears his throat, then takes a sip of his drink.

"Sometimes the way you've changed scares me," Aomine remarks, which earns him an immediate smack from Satsuki. "What the hell, Satsuki, that wasn't even an insult! It's a good change, a good change!"

"Explain to me how that doesn't sound like an insult," Satsuki says, but without much bite to it. Aomine rubs at the back of his head.

"I'm surprised you two can stand living next to each other." Murasakibara comments, having already torn away the cellophane wrapper of the box and was popping premium quality chocolates into his mouth.

"Well, Aomine-kun is still alive and Midorima-kun still has all of his hair, so they're at least compatible enough to coexist," Tetsu offers, and Kise practically bangs his forehead on the tabletop as he starts laughing. "They haven't killed each other yet."

"Yet," Midorima echoes, doubt in his voice. Kise laughs harder, not noticing Aomine's glare.

Kise's laughter gradually ebbs, and he leans forward, looking at all of them, resting his chin on his hand, a small smile playing about on his lips. "This is nice, isn't it?"

"It's been a long time," Tetsu concurs. Murasakibara ruffles his hair. Satsuki smiles, and Aomine thinks he sees a microscopic upwards tilt of Midorima's lips as well.

Tetsu has some kind of spell over all of them, he's sure. Too bad Akashi isn't here to agree with him.

They part the way they did the last time during high school, an exchange of any potential new phone numbers and _see you soon_'s. Aomine wonders how soon 'soon' will be.

Midorima heads off with his bag full of books to the library to study for some upcoming test at the second intersection they come across, leaving Aomine alone with Tetsu for the rest of the walk home.

"Jeez, I'm sweating," he says, and receives an acquiescing nod from Tetsu. He gives Tetsu a sidelong glance, and Tetsu returns it, that steady all-seeing gaze making his breath hitch in his throat. "Ice cream? Just like old times."

"Just like old times," he agrees.

* * *

"You know, Tetsu, I never properly apologized."

Tetsu's lips twitch. "Are you still worrying about what happened in middle school?"

Aomine scratches the back of his neck. It's kind of funny how Tetsu just _knows_. "Well, it's not like I'm thinking about it all the time, but sometimes things just remind me. Like, I don't know, being surrounded by all of the people from middle school. So...just wanna say I'm sorry about that."

Tetsu is quiet for a moment, his popsicle beginning to melt and drip blue-tinted drops onto the concrete sidewalk. Then he says, "we were just kids", voice filling the wind and gentle like the summer breeze weaving through his hair, caressing the old wounds, not needing to say 'it's ok'. "You loved basketball more than anyone else did."

"You liked basketball more than anything else, too," Aomine points out, because it's true, but Tetsu smiles at him and shakes his head.

"Not basketball." There's a rueful look in his eyes as he fiddles with the popsicle, which is mostly just a stick now, with the rest of it a small pool on the ground, and he adds, "and I didn't mean _anything_ _else_ - that's...a little different. But I guess you loving it more than anything else isn't very surprising."

"Huh? What is it if wasn't basketball? I really don't remember you doing much else, except for homework, probably," Aomine says, thoughts spinning when Tetsu meets his eyes, the sun illuminating Tetsu's hair and his face and his clear eyes with a soft orange glow.

The way Tetsu gazes at him right then makes a honey-sweet, pleasant kind of warmth bloom across his chest.

"Oh." He says, without needing to hear Tetsu's answer. It all makes so much more sense, everything clicking into place and it suddenly (finally?) feels so...right. "Oh."

He waits for Tetsu to say something, but he just lowers his eyes to the ground, distractedly playing with the popsicle stick. Tetsu, whose passes spoke of all the things he'd wanted to stop believing in; Tetsu, who stood there with him in the rain, the world crumbling down around him; Tetsu, who was hurting with him too - always did, and always would. The faint, hazed-up memory of one Winter Cup match resurfaces, tinged with a clarity of the feeling of Tetsu's knuckles against his, a perfection that lacked nothing yet everything at the same time.

Damn, he should've seen it coming.

"If it makes you feel any better," Aomine clears his throat, because it suddenly feels scratchy and bone-dry. Tetsu looks up at him. "Remember that first game we played together?"

Tetsu gives him a look that tells him that he can't forget even if he wants to. "Coach and Nijimura-senpai wanted to remove me from the club," Tetsu pauses, recollecting, and instantly there's a flicker of something akin to realization across his face. Aomine knows that feeling: remembering something he'd always known, but was in some dusty corner at the back of his mind because it seems like something fabricated in comparison to other much larger, life-changing things - and then realizing all the same that its significance is incomparable. "That time, you..."

Aomine feels like every one of his nerves are being singed by sparks of mirth, wanting to laugh and cry at the same time when he thinks back and remembers Tetsu's locked jaw, trembling almost imperceptibly. "I would've quit, if they really did remove you. You know I would've."

"I know that, it's just - I didn't think of that kind of implication." Tetsu's lips quiver, and he has to take a shuddering breath, but he manages to say, "Aomine-kun is unexpectedly sweet sometimes."

Aomine grins, realizes that it's been quite a while since he'd smiled like this.

(He isn't the way he was, never will be again, but this isn't too bad.)

"There are a lot of redeeming qualities about me. Hard not to like me."

"It's just there are also a lot of other qualities about you that contradicts the good ones," Tetsu shoots back. Aomine rolls his eyes, about to retort something else, but then Tetsu, looking at him just like he did all those years ago in the fourth gym, asks, "do you still like basketball, Aomine-kun?"

He stops, closes his mouth. His mind is filled with the recent memories of Murasakibara stirring cake batter, Midorima and that small crinkle of his eyes when he almost smiled, Kise's fond gaze that took in everything that it couldn't in the skies, Momoi poring over textbooks with Riko, Akashi telling them that he was doing well in the States over Skype and "Satsuki, please make sure Daiki eats his vegetables", and Kagami's occasional prank phone calls that all concluded with Aomine figuring it out way too quickly along with promises of winning their next one-on-one.

"I'm _Aomine Daiki_. Did you need to even ask?"

Tetsu cracks a smile right then, the same one that was always there when he held out a fist, the same smile that Aomine had etched into his mind out on a chilly winter night on a court by the street after their first high school Winter Cup match against each other, and Tetsu replies, "I know. It's just nice to hear."

* * *

**A/N: **for Misdirection; aka that plotless thing where i just want aomine and kuroko to talk to each other but i really wanted to have an attempt at writing midorima and murasakibara so this turned out really odd yeah ;v; i wanted to write kise too but i can't make up my mind sometimes how i want to portray him sO KISE DOn'T TALK TOO MUCH YOU'rE OOC ENOUGH IN HERE (LOL also akashi lets just... forget about his existence /flees)

but yeees thank you for taking the time to read! c:


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